I'm Not an Animal (Slow Updates)

Chapter 23

"You tricked us."

"No -"

"We trusted you!" I spat, taking a step forward. I pointed the gun at Kaden's heart. He searched my face - searching for pity or empathy - and met my eyes. Then he crumbled.

Kaden hit the ground and curled in on himself. He didn't cry, only wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his face. He sniffed and turned his head away.

"You don't understand," Kaden whispered, sliding his back up to the tree.

"Do tell," I growled. Ruby reached forward and put her hands on my arm, lowering it slightly. The gun moved from pointing at Kaden to the ground before him.

"I not a Leopard..."

"Are you sure? Because from here, you looked pretty damn -"

"Tora." Ruby whispered, putting her hand on my shoulder. I looked back at her and my arm dropped fully, but I kept a hold on the gun.

"I'm a Snow Leopard. Slightly different. You gotta believe me, please, I'm entirely dedicated towards the Resistance. Please."

"Tora," Zaki nudged me. "The book."

I reached into my satchel and pulled out the Hand Guide. Keeping an eye on Kaden, I flipped to the page titled Snow Leopards. There wasn't much. It was one of the last entries.

They know about me and they're coming for me. I don't have much left to write, I don't have much time. I suppose this has almost become a diary of sorts. I do apologise.

Leopards. Killers. Snow Leopards. Feisty, strong, often bipolar. But they aren't the killers Leopards are. Sure, they will kill. But it is not for he pleasure. For the rush. It is for the safety of themselves and those around them. Do not let them conform to the action to regularly, though, or else they will change to become like Leopards themselves.

I slammed the book shut.

"You've killed."

"Not enough," Kaden replied. "Not yet. Almost. At one point I thought I'd lost myself. But... I was saved."

"Who?"

"My best friend. She told me... she told me to stop. She told me it was wrong, but it was hard. It took her dying before my eyes for me to see what would happen. A Snow Leopard killed her, Tora. I looked at him and all I saw was myself. I'd taken my friend there. Stood on the wrong side of the clearing. They shot her first." His voice lowered so that it was barely above a whisper. "I killed my best friend, Tora."

I was silent for a moment. I just stood here, staring down at him. Kaden looked back up at me, trying not to cry. I could see it. I finally spoke.

"Get on your feet. We're moving out now."

I Shifted and leaped off between the trees, snapping branches and crashing through the underbrush. I heard Zaki and Eleanor call out behind me, but I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. All I could think was that if Kaden had been a Leopard, I would have killed the people closest to me. It would have been my fault.

I growled for Zaki to hurry it up and leapt over a fallen tree. I scrambled beneath another one, which was propped up on a branch, and stopped to study my surroundings. Something was wrong.

There were fallen and broken trees everywhere. All around me, branches littered the ground and pale, dead trunks either reached skyward or lay over the top of their fallen limbs. Those that still stood looked like skeletons; pale, stripped of their leaves and their life.